Mennonites, Amish, and the American Civil War

When war engulfed Virginia in the summer of 1861, Mennonite Christian Good was conscripted into the state militia. After Good experienced battle and failed to discharge his rifle, his perturbed captain asked him why he had refused to shoot at Union soldiers in clear view. The committed pacifist reportedly responded, "They're people; we don't shoot people" (58).

While most Protestants north and south wholeheartedly supported their governments and sent scores of soldiers to fight in the Civil War, members of Anabaptist sects struggled to balance the conflicting duties of citizenship in both an earthly state and a heavenly kingdom. As religious outsiders who traced their origins to the radical fringe of the Protestant Reformation, many Mennonites and Amish had settled in America to avoid compulsory military service in Europe. More significant than challenging their civic loyalty and threatening their commitment to the principles of pacifism, the Civil War forced them to engage the political and cultural mainstream and adapt to the contingencies of war in order to protect their distinctive and countercultural religious beliefs.

In a compelling narrative, Lehman and Nolt effectively recount the unique circumstances of American Anabaptists in three geographic regions. In Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, conscripted pacifists could secure an exemption from military service by paying a $500 commutation fee or furnishing a substitute. Although a few Mennonites fought for the Confederacy, many more attempted to flee north and avoid supporting the rebellion. During the autumn of 1864, the Union's hard war policy resulted in the destruction of several Mennonite farms, and these southern conscientious objectors suffered at the hands of Rebels who confiscated their crops and livestock and Federals who destroyed what remained.

Pennsylvania Mennonites, in contrast, benefited from political ties to Radical Republican senator Thaddeus Stevens, who helped his constituents secure military exemptions from the state militia without paying a commutation fee. Most Pennsylvania pacifists realized that political participation was essential to the preservation of their religious privileges.

For several reasons, midwestern Mennonites and Amish lacked the political connections of their Pennsylvania brethren. Many pacifists drafted in Ohio and Indiana paid a $200 commutation fee or hired substitutes to avoid service. Several Ohio Anabaptists supported the Democratic party, and townships with large pacifist populations in Holmes and Wayne counties produced large majorities for Clement Vallandigham in the 1863 gubernatorial contest. However, by the campaigns of 1864, many midwestern Mennonites had adopted the apolitical stance espoused by John Funk, who began publishing the Herald of Truth in Elkhart, Indiana, and asserted in its pages that a consistent application of pacifist principles prevented a conscientious objector from voting, seeking public office, or purchasing a substitute.

Most Mennonites and Amish, the authors conclude, remained true to their spiritual convictions despite the turbulent conditions of civil war. By highlighting the struggles of these religious outsiders who strived to keep the church distinct from the world, Lehman and Nolt have produced an insightful study that further elucidates the centrality of religion for a proper understanding of the Civil War.